I've been wondering what the hand signals that the pilots do to the ground crew actually mean.

I saw a video where the first officer during the taxi into the stand, held his hand on the windshield and did thumbs up through the taxi, and when they set the brakes, the captain put his hand up, then closed it and after did a thumbs up?

So I was wondering what all of that means to the ground crew?

Open hands to closed fists means that the parking brake is set. Closed fists to open hands means release parking brakes. There are  number of different hand signals that we use. Some crew members are very informal and others are very by the book. I've even had crew members give me the middle finger and that's not on any chart I've ever seen.

 I've even had crew members give me the middle finger and that's not on any chart I've ever seen.

That was to remind you that you had an appointment at 1 o'clock!

That was to remind you that you had an appointment at 1 o'clock!

Oh, I'm sure of that.

These are some of the ICAO hand signals. Airlines will also have their own versions of what they want to use.

 

 

 

Open hands to closed fists means that the parking brake is set.

 

   Eeek! At 28 seconds here's a pilot apparently setting his brake while rolling. Must be a language thing, eh?

 

D

If the pilot shows his middle finger you can be sure the ground crew have screwed up

If the pilot shows his middle finger you can be sure the ground crew have screwed up

Or, the pilot's an A-hole.

@mwilk

Hehe, that might be the case... but joke aside i have the outmost respect for the pilot-profession, they fly tirelesly year after year with extremely good accident-statistics. And unlike the x-mas rush at the hypermart parkinglots, they taxi mostly flawlessly in cooperation with ground crew the few who *don't* quickly ends up on YouTube

@mwilk

 

Hehe, that might be the case... but joke aside i have the outmost respect for the pilot-profession, they fly tirelesly year after year with extremely good accident-statistics. And unlike the x-mas rush at the hypermart parkinglots, they taxi mostly flawlessly in cooperation with ground crew the few who *don't* quickly ends up on YouTube

Like all groups of people, most of them are good guys. You find the occasional one that has a God complex. Some are just ornery and like to be PITA. We had a pilot at US Air that always traveled with a bag of candy. He would come down on the ramp or into our break room and give it out. Other ones would come into the break room looking for the bathroom. They couldn't lower themselves to talk to the bag smashers so they would just wander around. At that point I'd say, "what's the matter, no VOR for the bathroom?" They'd get red faced and either walk out or ask where it was at.

Yeah, they are just people too... but when they get in the left seat, (Im sure your better informed than me) the pilot must be 100% professional, be it contact with ground crew, atc or fellow pilots.